Posted on 04/13/2008 8:20:52 AM PDT by ZacandPook
Mr. Clawson at his deposition testified that a reporter told him a federal agent says a silencer was found in Dr. Hatfill’s apartment. At least Dr. Hatfill was not claimed to have kept the silencer in the refrigerator next to the anthrax simulant BT that was found. (At one point, Mr. Clawson says he had it because he trained first responders etc. which would have been reason enough for the simulant.)
September 5, 2002
Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, Ph:D. ’
Biology Department
State University of New York
73 .5 Anderson Hill Road
Purchase, NY !0577-1400
Dear Dr. Rosenberg:
I represent Steven Hatfill.
The New York Times of today reports that you have sent a “new
commentary about the anthrax attacks” to the FBI. Would you please send me a
copy.
I had not intended to write to you informally about the following, but since
I am writing to get your commentary, I will take the occasion to offer the
following thought:
I understand that you have recently observed that the FBI’s focus on Dr.
HatfilI was a matter, of its own choosing, for which you were in no way
responsible. I will not comment on the appropriateness of any such position, but
on behalf of Dr. Hatfilt I would request, and suggest, that before you even get
close to describing him in the future, by name or otherwise, you submit your
comments for legal vetting before publishing them to anyone. This will benefit all
parties.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Victor M. Glasberg
From: DEBRA WEIERMAN
To: Lisa Hodgson
Date: Wed, June 4, 2003 12:18 PM
Subject: AMERITHRAX INVESTIGATION
Lisa: Please disseminate to all WFO employees. Thanks, Debbie
For the information of all recipients, Director Mueller has ordered that no one discuss the AMERITHRAX case with any representative of the news media. The WFO and Baltimore Media Offices have released several media advisories, which were coordinated with the US Attorney and FBIHQ, to explain specific milestones in the case. However, NO FBI WFO EMPLOYEE, INCLUDING MYSELF AND INSPECTOR RICK LAMBERT, WHO IS IN CHARGE OF AMERITHRAX, IS TO RESPOND TO ANY MEDIA INQUIRIES, THE ONLY EXCEPTION IS DEBBIE WEIERMAN IN THE MEDIA OFFICE. All inquiries from reporters or journalists received by any WFO employee are to be immediately referred to Debbie at xxx-xxxx, and she will handle.
I thank everyone at WFT for their dedication to the job and to this office. I also thank you for your cooperation in this very important matter.
Mike Rolince
Dr. Hatfill also recalls having contact with members of the press after the June 25, 2002 search of his apartment, including: calling Bill Broad (NY Times) to tell Broad to stop calling and that he would not provide an interview, leaving a voicemail message for Vic Walter (ABC) stating that a particular broadcast was libelous, leaving Jim Stewart (CBS) a message saying he would sue him, leaving Marilyn Thompson (Washington Post) two voicemail messages about his opinion of her, receiving a call related to the anthrax investigation from someone affiliated with Insight magazine and telling the person to go away, calling Ed Lake to correct inaccuracies reflected in a New York Times article about “mobile labs,” having an off-the-record conversation during dinner with Judith Miller (NY Times, Pat Clawson, and another friend in an attempt to correct Ms. Miller’s interpretations of information regarding “mobile labs,” discussing his career in Africa and his military experience with with Jason Cherkis (City Paper), and providing Mr. Cherkis of himself that were used in an article, having lunch with Tom Connolly and Ted Koppel (ABC) during which they primarily discussed Dr. Hatfill’s medical studies, having lunch with Tom Connolly, Jim Stewart (CBS) and Mark Katkov (CBS) during which Stewart and Katkov pitched for an interview of Dr. Hatfill and he declined, and speaking with Gary Matsumoto (former Fox TV & freelance writer) generally about biodefense, Dr. Hatfill’s innocence, and the impact the FBI’s harrassing surveillance had on his life.
Patrick Clawson also coordinated meetings between Dr. Hatfill and the following members of the press in an effort to humanize Dr. Hatfill: Guy Gugliotta (Washington Post), David Kestenbaum (NPR), Rick Schmitt (LA Times), Rob Buchanan (NBC Dateline), Jim Popkin (NBC News), Dee Ann Divis and Nick Horrock (UPI), Gary Matsumoto (former Fox TV & freelance writer), Bill Gertz (Washington Times) and Jason Cherkis (City Paper). During these meetings, Dr. Hatfill generally asserted his innocence and lack of involvement in the anthrax attacks, and he talked a little about his personal life, his medical training in Africa, and the impact the FBI’s harassing surveillance had on his life. Dr. Hatfill also discussed his general observations about biodefense with several of these reporters. All of these meetings were conducted “on background” and “off-the-record.”
During 2002 and 2003, Dr. Hatfill also provided off-the-record informal discussion with select members of the press. Tom Jackman (Washington Post) interviewed Dr. Hatfill and Vic Glasbert for an article about Dr. Hatfill that was published on August 11, 2002, although Vic Glasberg did virtually all the speaking. David Tell of the Weekly Standard interviewed Dr. Hatfill “on background” in August 2002 for a story that appeared in September 2002.
Dr. Hatfill has also made formal, public statements regarding the defendants’ actions at issues in this case. In the sumer of 2002, Dr. Hatfill appeared briefly on the Oliver North Show on Radio America. In August 2002, Dr. Hatfill held two news conferences. And in October 2002 Dr. Hatfill spoke at the Accuracy in Media conference in Washington, D.C. Dr. Hatfill has spoken with Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media a number of times on a variety of geopolitical and other subjects.
OPR stands for "Office of Professional Responsibility." It looks an agency where they get you fired or disbarred if they find that you did bad things, they don't prosecute you.
What document is that in? I don't want to pay to download every single document in order to find it.
From: “Pat Clawson” [email redacted]
To: “Vic Glasbegg” [email redacted]
Cc: [Dr. Hatfill’s email redacted]
Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2002 4:08 PM
Subject: RE: Hatfill Update ....
Vic,
Your messsage is understood and I agree with it.
Gary [Matsumoto] has assured me that he is prepared to go the distance, and I be!ieve him.
Assuming he gets into DC early this evening, do you wish to meet with him? I certainly have no problem with it, and actually think it would be good to do.
Regards,
Pat
..... Original Message .....
From: Vic Glasberg [email redacted]
Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2002 4:11
To: Pat Clawson
Cc: [Hatfill’s email redacted]
Subject: Ke: Hatfill Update .....
Pat —
Steve should not be quoted, nor should Matsumoto say or imply that he spoke with him. In addition, Matsumoto must be willing to go to jail rather than revea! word one of anything “Steve says on “deep background.” The latter applies as well to you. You and Steve know that I do not feel comfortable with Steve’s speaking to anyone about issues that may heart
however tangentially, on anthrax charges, and recontmend that he not do so.
i realize how galling it is for you and Steve to continue hearing me say “wait” while evidence mounts that the criminal cloud will in fact dissipate, as we hope and expect. The problem is the existence of the cloud. The fact that a thunderburst will end in 5 minutes does not mean you take your raincoat off in a drenching shower. I will be out of town (Ann Arbor) after this evening, and back in the office on Tuesday.
Victor M. Glasberg
Victor M. Glasberg & Associates
XXX
Alexandria, VA 22314
XXX
From: Via Glasberg [email redacted]
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 12:53 PM
To: steven hatfill
cc: Pat Clawson
Subject: Fw: NY Times editorial
***
From: “Vic G!asberg” [email redacted]
To: “steven hatfi!l” [email redacted]
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 12:47 PM
Subject: NY Times editorial
>
***
> Ironically, the government’s stupid decision to raid your home rather
> than seeking cooperation, which raid precipitated our escalated public
relations reaction, has given your case far greater visibility, and given our
efforts far greater success, than would othgerwise have occurred. Thanks to
> the government, Rosenberg, Shane and Kristoff are, each of them, in
> varying stages of sulking, licking their wounds, reacting defensively,
> and changing
> their tune.
>
> Pat C!awson is largely responsible for this success. His savvy,
> drive [technical glitch] commitment to your cause have
made these successes possible.
i expect to meet with selected representatives of the press on Monday. Pat is setting it up. If it goes off, which i expect it wil!, there should be something useful on TV Monday evening.
Vic
***
Sent:
To:
Subject:
Vic Glasberg [ email redacted]
Friday, August 16, 2002 4:15 PM
steven hatfill; Pat Clawson
Status report
Gentlemen:
I wish briefly to take stock of where we are, and to confirm certain guidelines as we proceed:
1. We have met with astonishing success in turning the tide of adverse publicity.
Starting with what was a torrent of government-leaked defamatory innuendo aimed at Steve, we have achieved a clear public awareness that while Steve, like his biowarfare colleagues, is a legitimate subject of interest to the investigating authorities, they have gone haywire in focusing on him like a loser as they have. The public may well be more concerned at this point with governmenta! unfairness and overreaching in Steve’s case as it is in him as a “person of interest.” The case has reached international
proportions. I have favorable articles from Le Monde in Paris and the leading paper in San Salvador in my office. I am sure there are tons more. and of course we have the Times and Post editorials.
All this is an enormous achievement. Pat gets enormous credit for having it happen.
2. We have put, and are in the process of putting, the principal detractors on the . defensive. Rosenberg has shut up. Shane is publishing helpful stuff. The Times has virtually repudiated Kristoff. Kristoff is backing off, however ungraciously, and I have some things in store for him next week. I do not mean to suggest that the defamation will stop. But it can be expected to continue to calm down, big time.
3. We are moving forward aggressively on the handwriting and dog fronts, and I expect to have something to report next week. I cannot give you a date, but will let you know. You cannot rush experts, just ask them to hurry.
4. The above is the good news. There is no particularly bad news to report, but the good news cannot overshadow~the reality that Steve is under a criminal microscope, i compare the matter to the flimsy scaffolding that some years ago surrounded the Washington monument as the masonry was being, repaired. We are in the process of shredding the scaffolding, but WE DO NOT KNOW IF THERE IS MASONRY THERE. We do not know stuff the government has not leaked. We do not know what we do not know. What we do know is that they are eyeing Steve for a capital offense, and that if they can’t nail him for that, some other offense, real or bogus, might be an opportune second.
We must not allow our delight with our publicity successes to obscure this fact. While the immediate and feasible task at hand is winning the public relations trial, the ultimate task is preventing.(or winning) the courtroom trial. The latter will occur, or not occur, based on things WE DO NOT KNOW, CANNOT EXPECT TO LEARN THROUGH LEAKS OR FRIENDS, AND CANNOT EXPECT TO CONTROL EXCEPT INDIRECTLY, MODESTLY AND UNCERTAINLY VIA OUR PUBLIC RELATIONS WORK.
5. I have spoken with Jon Shapiro at length about the above. He and I are
in agreement that it is imperative to maintain appropriate vigilance regarding all matters of interest or potential interest to the authorities, regardless of how bogus, and notwithstanding the recent and hopefully ongoing PR successes, in particular, Steve must continue to observe the rule of COMPLETE SILENCE regarding anything and everything about the case except when communicating in legally privileged circumstances, I have no doubt
that Steve has been doing this, but precisely because things may seem to be improving on the PR front it is imperative to maintain this rule.
6. Steve’s only privileged forums now are with his counsel. This means,
Steve, that you should continue NOT SPEAKING about anything with ANYONE.
This includes Peck and Pat. If you, Steve, feel a need to communicate anything to Peck or
Pat, let me Know and we’ll figure it out, just as we did when Pat and I jointly spoke with you on the phone several days ago. Pat, the same goes for you: please do not speak to Steve about ANYTHING except, as a friend, to find out how he’s feeling. Please do not discuss any facts, about the case or about the government’s investigation, surveillance, etc.
If you need to learn something from Steve, Parr let me hnow. I’ll get it to you. Except for your lawyers, Steve, anyone with whom you speak, including Pat and Peck, can be hauled in front of a grand jury to disgorge 100% of what you discussed. The latter should continue to be zero information of substance. Let your lawyers and Pat attend to the talking. I realize it is a pain in the neck. But being under the criminal microscope is worse, in actuality and in potential.
Steve and Pat: PLEASE CONFIRM RECEIPT OF THIS MESSAGE. Thank you.
Have a nice weekend.
Vic
Victor M. Glasberg
Victor M. Glasberg & Associates
xxx
***
FROM: Vic Glasberg
Wednesday, September 11,2002 9:04 AM
TO: Pat Clawson
CC: steven hatfill; ion shapiro
SUBJECT Re: Clawson’s Last Posting Before Leaving for Seattle ....
Thanks for the information on Corish; I”ll pass it on.
I spoke with Jon about the judge’s order sealing our motion. We are not free to give it to anyone. I asked Jon, rhetorically, if a judge could peremptorily seal one’s own affidavit and thereby prevent one from giving out one’s own statement. He said yes. So right now all the dog business is under wraps.
Jon advises that you may be called before the grand jury. He says that prosecutors are ruthless in this regard. He has had children called against parents, and parents against children, in death cases. All this raises important issues that we should consider more pointedly at this time. I would confirm my retention of you on virtually day one as an investigator, but it is beyond cavil that you are also Steve’s friend with direct personal
knowledge of particular facts (e.g. the cipro discussions, the anthrax cabin, the DC terrorism novel), and also his principal press spokesman.
Counsel for RadioAmerican might think otherwise (you might ask) but I doubt you could plausibly claim any sort of journalist’s First Amendment privilege on these matters. In the end, i believe that you would not have any locked-in privilege to bar your compelled testimony before a grand jury, should your testimony be demanded, as well it may as the government starts scrambling to comeup with something.
Jon has made it clear that in his view it is important not to provide potential
substantive ammunition to the feds, regardless of the PR price paid by silence on some issues (as opposed to no silence on the procedural unfairness of the investigation). To date we have focused in this regard on what Steve tells the press, by himself or through you. Now that the tide has turned on the issue of the investigatory unfairness, we must
turn as well to minimizing Steve’s exposure, and your own, to major problems arising out of your being called to testify before the grand jury.
What you know, you know, and you have put virtually all of that into the public record.
Fine. That is where we are, and for good or ill we can and will deal with it. But we must put a full stop to any further conveyance of substantive data about ANYTHING from Steve to anyone but Jon or me, except as Jon may approve. I am ready and willing to argue for more ample disc!osures for PR purposes, but, having made the argument, I wil! defer to Jon, and so too must Steve and you. I don’t think anyone disagrees with this — witness your rebuff of Kyla Dunn to which you refer — but I am writing it down because I have
not stressed this particular point before and it is important to note.
I am sending a copy of this to Steve and Jon so that we might all be on the same page.
Have a nice trip. We can light some more fireqrackers next week complaining to Congress that Ashcroft has not responded to my letter.
Vic
Victor M. Glasberg
Victor M. Glasberg~& Associates
***
Original Message
From: “Pat Clawson” [email redacted]
To: “Vic Glasberg” [email redacted]
Sent: Tuesday, September I0, 2002 8:33 PM
Subject: Clawson’s Last Posting Before Leaving for Seattle ....
,,Victor...
Call Chris C~rish of our staff here at Radio America...202-xxx-xxxx.
He’s had !ors of personal experience dealing with the two fundraisers.
They also raise money for Radio America.
Aiso, you need to phone Mark Smith, the handwriting expert who has offered his services.
Interesting guy - and he’s been in touch with the FBI agents working Steve’s case. He has some insight at to their ineptness that you might find helpfu!. His phone is 301 xxx xxxx
i spoke tonight with Kyle Dunn, the freelance reporter for the New York Times Magazine.
Be careful - she’s been on the staff of the Center for Investigative Reporting in San Francisco for severa! years. She’s very sharp, not your typical dumb-ass reporter. I declined to discuss Steve’s Africa and military background, told her she’ll need to get answers from you on that.
I understand that she’s meeting with you on Thursday.
Ill be reachable via cell — 703-xxx xxxx.
Regards,
Pat Clawson
Is his travel patterns consistent with the locations the letters were mailed from?
The anthrax was Ames agricultural type anthrax from a University in Iowa.
My best guess is it came from Iowa originally, then on to Germany’s Department of Agriculture where the Germans gave a kilo to Iraq’s Department of Agriculure in the late 1990’s (supposedly as a gesture of goodwill post Desert Storm). Saddam Hussein’s personal guards intercepted the package on the steps of the Dept. of Ag. building (this is according to the then Department’s Director when interrogated by our intelligence officers), eventually passed on to Al Qu’aeda as some of the bombers were noted to have sores indicative of anthrax contamination and, of course, they had been trained to fly cropdusters. The letters were sent from Trenton, New Jersey, home of the Arab WTC bombers of the early 1990’s who had as their bomb builder, Ramzi Yussef, a cousin to Al Qu’aeda’s third in command, Khalid Sheik Muhammed. There are many connections between Saddam Hussein and terrorist groups, and between groups such as the Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qu’aeda, but they are purposefully hard to follow, as Hussein wanted deniability.
I have been flamed before for saying the above but for some stupid reason the government keeps trying to blame one of their own.
No, he did not. This is a fabrication on your part.
And it wasn't "many" of his colleagues that thought he was suspicious, it was only a couple. Unfortunately, those people had big mouths and enough connections to get their voices heard. I still think it was largley due to a political agenda on their part.
Hatfill has already received a financial settlement from Conde Nast/Vanity Fair due to their foolishly printing that article from Don "The Shakespeare Dunce" Foster that outright called him the murderer. And mark my words, Hatfill will be receiving plenty more money from the other guilty parties sooner or later.
Kristof seems to have behaved in an outrageous way in this case, targeting Hatfield as the bad guy perhaps simply because he had spent some time in South Africa (and therefore was assumed to be a supporter of white supremacists).
Kristof was also a willing mouthpiece for Joe Wilson's lying leaks which did a lot of harm to the Bush administration's foreign policy (before Wilson finally wrote an op-ed in his own name).
The real anthrax killers died when they flew the planes they hijacked into the World Trade Center on 11 Sept, 2001, and then also when Saddam Hussein was hung to death.
Political correctness and the idea that you had to have an air-tight legal case before going after whole nations that mean us harm will be the death of too many of us.
Muhhamad Atta and his gang got weaponized anthrax from Saddam Hussein’s regime when Atta met Iraqi intel officers in Prague in May of 2001, and Atta and his villians mailed the Anthrax letters, to be mailed in NJ, by accomplices, after they died. That is why from their safe house in Fla, the first anthrax victim was the guy right there at the National Star, and the druggist had to offer Atta and another fiend some antibiotics days before 9/11.
BINGO!
The anthrax originally was from a dead cow in Texas.
It may or may not have transited Ames, Iowa. The documentary evidence is ambiguous. Postal Inspector John Richter has told a Freeper that it did transit Ames.
If it did, the direct connection is with USDA Ames, not the University.
USDA had collected strains at Ft. Detrick’s request.
You are correct about the connection between Saddam and EIJ and Saddam and the warlord Hekmatyar. See recent report. It is unsettling that the media seizes on a perceived non-connection with Al Qaeda when it is senior EIJ folks who ran Al Qaeda and were in charge of the anthrax program (e.g., Zawahiri, Atef).
You are guessing, however, it went to Germany. The FBI knows of 16 labs it was at, as I recall. Perhaps 20-30 is a fair estimate of the maximum number. Of the known labs, the FBI has narrowed the field of labs to 4 based on genetic work. See MSNBC report. It may now be able to pinpoint it further based on developments in the science. See Keim’s article last month.
If you have any URLs to provide re Germany it would be interesting to see. Strains were traded like baseball cards. I called USDA Ames in Iowa and submitted a FOIA request nationally and the HQ responded formally denying they had a strain they knew as Ames.
Given Al-Timimi was speaking alongside the AQ WMD recruiter at charity conferences (the blind sheik’s son), associating with the “911 imam,” and his mentors were the WTC 1993-era recruiter Bilal Philips and Bin Laden’s sheik al-Hawali, there is no reason for guessing. (Al-Hawali was the sheik along with the blind sheik Abdel-Rahman OBL referenced in his Declaration of War. Indeed as to Ames strain, for example, we know Ali’s George Mason University Department was working with Delta Ames supplied by NIH under a multi-million dollar DARPA funded contract with USAMRIID. The DOD grants were from 2001. The mailed anthrax was a mix of two strains and included an inverted plasmid.
You are absolutely correct that if Iraqi intelligence helped EIJ on this it would be difficult to learn about.
The CIA does not credit that Atta got Ames from an Iraqi agent in Prague.
Plus, of course, the hijackers were dead at the time of the mailing.
CIA Director Tenet, though, says the anthrax planning was done in parallel with the planes operation.
If you are asking about Hatfill, his whereabouts during the day are provably the Frederick, Maryland area.
If you are asking about Al-Timimi, his whereabouts during the day are provably in the Falls Church, Virginia. FBI had tabs on his dinner on 9/16 and his lunch on 9/17 and had interviewed him the first week after 9/11. I do not believe he is suspected of being either the mailer or the processor. He is not believed to have the skill set for drying anthrax — he was a numbers guy, in a bioinformatics. I believe the FBI suspects him of accessing biochemistry information relating to concentration of anthrax using silica and passing it on.
Hatfill was taking Cipro. He was known to have been to NJ, and Florida when the attacks in those states occured. He was involved in a program teaching rescue personnel in the event of a biological attack. Bloodhounds reacted over and over again when near somewhere where Hatfill had been based on a scent given to the dogs from the anthrax letters. He had access to anthrax in his duties at Fort Dietrich.
I’ll risk Hatfill suing me for he’ll get my dog, cats and Jeep. But I think the FBI’s been on the right track all along only they can’t prove it.
Plus this fine fellow forged his diploma, such an honest guy.
I don’t get this defense of this man. There’s plenty of evidence pointing his way.
Maybe he is innocent but I sure don’t see any problem with him being a “person of interest”, no I sure do not.
The lynchpin is the dead National Enquirer employee in Florida, whose wife was a landlady for a couple of the 9/11 terrorists.
If Hatfill was the poisoner, what’s his connection to the dead man, and why send him the first anthrax letter?
I posit that this fellow was curious, may have even asked questions that alarmed Atta, and that an anthrax letter was sent when all the others were mailed from New Jersey. Frankly, I believe it was not part of their original plan and is the strongest evidence yet pointing to an Al Qu’aeda connection.
Have you noticed how the dead man’s wife seems to have never been publicly interviewed? I’ve not once read any interview she has given to a journalist. It would be just like the FBI to tell her to keep her mouth shut so they can divert attention away from the truth: terrorists hit us with anthrax and the government was caught lacking.
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